The Pittsburgh Steelers have parted ways with running back LeGarrette Blount a little over half a season after signing him to a $3.5 million free agent contract. It was evidently a case of three strikes you’re out for the chronically troubled Blount. He was busted for pot possession shortly after being signed. During training camp he got into a nasty altercation with linebackers coach Joey Porter. Then there was Monday night in Tennessee.

Le’Veon Bell was having a career night so the Steelers chose to ride the hot hand. John Gruden even remarked at one point how refreshing it was to see Bell get all the work without being shuffled in and out for a breather. Well, evidently getting one measly carry didn’t sit well with Blount, who stormed off the field and hid in the team bus before the game clock had even struck zero. This immature nonsense not only pushed the Steelers coaches past the breaking point but even his teammates seemed quite sick of his idiotic antics.

Cam Heyward, who continues to impress as one of the Black and Gold’s young leaders on and off the field, put it best when he told the P-G, “If you don’t want to be a part of the team, don’t be a part of the team.”

Sad part is Blount certainly has talent. There were a couple games this year where I thought he did a better job running the ball than Bell. At the same time, he’s almost certainly a colossal dipshit. He ruined his draft chances by sucker punching a Boise State player after they upset his Oregon team. The Titans took a chance on him but gladly let him go to Tampa without ever playing a game. The Bucs got three pretty productive years out of Blount before taking the first opportunity to replace him with someone who wasn’t an assclown. New England had him last season where, again, he did a pretty decent job yet was still let go as I’m sure the ultra-secretive Patriots had problems we never heard about.

Unlike some of the Steelers other high profile releases, this one doesn’t carry serious salary cap ramifications. The bulk of his contract was based on performance incentives. Actual guaranteed money on the two year deal was only about a million this year and a shade under $500,000 next. The bigger issue is who will back up Bell now that Blount is on the unemployment line.

The Steelers activated rookie Josh Harris off the practice squad for the time being. I mercifully skipped the vast majority of their preseason games so I cannot really tell you much about Harris other than he was an undrafted free agent out of Wake Forest. I did hear a crazy story that Harris tells about why he wasn’t drafted. Evidently, he thinks the coaches at WF hate him and purposely spread lies about his poor work ethic and possible drug use to ruin his chance at a pro career. I’m not sure why a coach would do that but it will explain why he says his high school’s name if he should ever get a chance to be in one of those Introducing the Starting Line-up graphics.

We also have Dri Archer but, frankly, I’ve seen nothing from him yet. He’s only come in for a few plays here and there and they’re almost all gimmicky things designed to take advantage of his ridiculous speed. This tells me he either doesn’t know the playbook or the coaches think he’s just a gadget play specialist. I did get a good chuckle out of Gruden calling him 5’4 on Monday night as he may be listed at 5’7 but he sure does look a lot smaller than that. He and Harris will do for this season but I guess running back is back on the shopping list come next year’s draft.

In the meantime, see ya LeGarrette Blount. With I could say it was nice knowing ya.